We recently suffered a death in the family, a cousin who had been a close childhood playmate. Though I had not seen him in years, his death hit me hard, and I was feeling bad for a few weeks. My reaction surprised me, because as adults, my cousin and I were not close. Then I realized that his passing had awoken my feelings about aging. The precariousness of our existence becomes more apparent the older we become. Not only did I contemplate that fact, in my mind, I also started to relive some of the less successful times of my life and came close to shedding tears. It took me a while, but I finally threw my shoulders back and made a successful effort to be the positive person that I usually am.

There was one positive result of this down period that I suffered: I got an idea for my next novel! I don’t know yet that I’ll actually use it, but it’s certainly something to consider. Given that lately I’ve had writer’s block, this idea is a good thing.